Employees are placing greater pressure on their employers to be more transparent about worker compensation. As the next generation of workers age, employers may be forced to adjust to worker openness on pay, according to a new report released by Bankrate.com.
“What you’re being paid, I mean, it really reveals a lot about you,” says Dow Scott, a human resources professor at Loyola University Chicago. “It’s how much you’re valued by the company, how much your job’s valued, probably what neighborhood you live in, whether your kids go to a good school or not. I mean, it just, it exposes people.”
Most workers see the benefits of compensation transparency. The majority of employees (62 percent) said they would be willing to share more information about their own salary if they could do it anonymously, while 70 percent believe salary transparency is good for employee satisfaction, according to a recent survey from Glassdoor.
Roughly a quarter of employees said they have shared their salary with a co-worker. Men were more likely to reveal this type of information than women, (29% vs. 20% respectively). This might not be a coincidence, the study suggests.
“Men assess communications about pay more positively than women,” said Dow Scott, a human resources professor at Loyola University Chicago. “Men also have more positive perceptions of pay fairness and pay satisfaction.”
The topic of compensation is not only evaded in the workplace; 31 percent of respondents said they have never told a live-in romantic partner how much money they make. Shockingly, nearly 1 in 5 (19 percent) of respondents who are currently married or living with a partner said they have never disclosed how much they earn, the study found.
“Not telling your friends how much you make is one thing, but failing to share that information with a significant other could be a bad idea,” said Bankrate.com analyst Amanda Dixon. “When you’re setting short-term or long-term financial goals, it’s impossible to be on the same page if you’re not open and honest about how much money is coming in.”
On the other hand, age seems to be a major differentiating factor when it comes to salary disclosure. One in three millennials said they shared their salary with a colleague, compared with only 18 percent of baby boomers. Millennials were also more likely to share their salary (48 percent) with a romantic partner (outside of their household) than baby boomers (29 percent), according to the report.
Overall, respondents are significantly more comfortable sharing their income with family. Fifty-four percent of all respondents said they shared their salary with an immediate relative, according to the report. However, baby boomers said they were still less likely to share their salary with a member of their household (43 percent) as compared to millenials (64 percent).
“Sharing your salary information has long been considered taboo, but that notion could be changing, especially among young adults,” Dixon said. “When you’re ready to ask for a raise or negotiate your salary at a new job, knowing how much you’re earning relative to others can be helpful.”